Park Knitters!

It's so ugly out now. Winter seems to have just rushed in without much time for fall, which is really my favourite. It seems like a heck of good time to remember park knitting which we were only just doing a few weeks ago.

Here is Josephine in progress:


And my first pair of Audi's:

And Emma! Looking good and knitting away:

And Donna, who is a knitter, and Josie, who wants to be a knitter:


And Jocelyn rocking out and knitting:

And Reena- new knitter:

Ah, good times.

Less knitting, more blogging!

Yes, its been a crazy summer. We were invited to 6 wedding this summer. We only made it to 3. But saying you went to 3 weddings doesn't come close to capturing the craziness of it all. Bridal Showers! Stagette weekends! Engagement parties! Pedicure parties! Stag Caberettes! Yes, I said caberettes. I was a dancer.

Anyways, it was all awesome. I am exhausted and broke.

But on to the knitting!!

Here, kind readers, we have the Fad Classic from Knit and Tonic. Judging by the debris in the background (passport, Californian wines, Tony's backpack and clothes) I would say this was finished in around July-ish.
So, this guy was knitted in Knit Picks Shine Worsted. (If you will recall our internet shopping adventure of April 2007.) The yarn is a little bleh to me. Sure, its totally soft but is sure does have a halo to it and the colour is kind of greeny black, which tends to bug me. If it doesn't get more halo-y I will forgive its colour. Also, probably great for kids stuff but doesn't exactly make me look sultry and sleek. Hmmmm, perhaps that is not the fault of the yarn.

The actual pattern is quite nice. I'm not sure if it looks great on me but its too warm yet to really do a fashion show. I sure do love vests though, especially in November. I reserve the right to revisit this bad boy till a colder month to pass judgement.

There's more!

You will recall Knitting School.....

This is my work in progress. I missed the last class so I am hoping that I am going in the correct direction. I am thinking I might go up to 3 Bags Full and sit there and knit while my teacher is working. I need someone to hold my hand.

(Also, check out my new sheets! Yes Andrea, I actually bought myself some sheets and didn't just wait for mom's hand me downs. Anyways, they are the best sheets ever! Not to mention a good backdrop for knitting. Yeah, Winners!)



O.kay, that's enough blogging for tonight. I have knitting to do. Sadly, there is also laundry to fold. I have more knitting to show and tell but no more tonight. That is all. Andrea: I will try to be funnier next time.

Knitting School

That's not what its called but it really should be.

So, as of July 1 (Happy Canada Day) I became a non smoker of 1.5 years and I needed a present. Generally I would go for jewelry but I had been eyeing a class up at Three Bags Full for a while and I decided that was the present for me. So I'm taking a design your own sweater class and its fabulous, not only because I get to say things like "I'm off to Knitting School!" and "I have a lot of knitting homework to do!". Although, getting to say those things is pretty darn good.

Now I must apologize, its been quite a while since I've posted. Its not my fault. Well, its a little my fault but people keep having birthday parties and there are camping weekends and out of town visitors. Oh and Vancouver had a disgusting heat wave last week and like I could even move. I have no knitting related photos to post so I poached a few from Facebook to prove that I am still alive and as geeky and photogenic as usual. The first photo (up there) is me channelling Paula Abdul. Obviously. There is something about the song "Straight Up". I just can't control myself. I can't explain it.

This one, well, I'm just not sure. I obviously found something hilarious. Almost as good as knitting photos?

Dear Blog

I am very sorry for not posting but it has been a very busy couple of weeks. I'm moonlighting right now. And I've had a few other commitments. Like Alisa's Stagette:

That's me on the right looking like I had an unfortunate accident. All that wetness is of the sky variety. Alisa's Stagette was comprised of a scavenger hunt on the rainiest, stormiest day in Vancouver that I can remember in a long time. I, being so hip and modern, did not own a rain coat and was terribly miserable. That's my partner Laura on the left. She owned a raincoat and was slightly less wet. We rocked the scavenger hunt and came in second (it came down to a foot race. Doesn't always? I was a running disappointment and we did not win the heart shaped key chains. I did win some gum though. The best prize by far was the 3 pack of socks, which I bartered for a pair of. My feet were soaked after we fell in a knee high puddle outside of The Landing.)

There was a second half of the Stagette which included a lot of alcohol (Jager Bombs should not be consumed by people over 30...) and bad dancing to Justin Timberlake, etc. I have photos of that part of the night but have some pride and will not post them. It says a lot that I am more than happy to post a picture of myself looking like I peed my pants on the Skytrain but will not post the drunk dancing photos. I should really just delete them now lest they fall into the wrong hands.

Anyhoo, I got myself a new raincoat:


I got Tony one too as you can see. We needed them because it was supposed to rain all last weekend and we were off to Savary Island:



That's my sister Andrea. Let's see if she actually looks at my blog..... She made that hat. She makes loads of things. She's a crocheter but I still love her.

So, while it apparently rained like a s.o.b. in Vancouver, Savary was lovely! This was good because my friend Anne got herself hitched:

What a great photo, no? It was an all out 4 day affair. I tell you, planning a wedding on an island without electricity or heck, even paved roads makes me want to cry a little but they planned it perfectly. Came off without a hitch. Here is a picture of Karl cooking his own wedding feast:

So you see I have been busy. There have been other things too. Ah, I went to see Roger Waters the other night (amazing) and ah, other things that I can't recall off the top of my head. But look, I managed to finish this:

Please focus on the sweater, not the shininess of my forehead. We took like 7 pictures. Sadly, that was the best one.... So, yes, Flair from Knit and Tonic. Made with Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton. I love that stuff. Anyways, its great. Worn it twice this week. Heck, I'm wearing it right now so I guess that makes it 3 times. It might make me look slightly pregnant from the side, but I don't care, I still love it. The interior buttons were a bit hard for me. I only put 3 inside and I thought that I had sewn them in very loosely but they pucker a bit so I guess not loosely enough. Like the slightly pregnancy aspect I also choose to ignore that.

Well, I guess that's about it. This is kind of a long and exhausting post. I'm on my way out to Surrey for my friend Christine's Annual Surrey BBQ. She lures us all out there with loads of great food once a year. Its more than worth the excessively long Skytrain ride. Tomorrow is the inaugural meeting of the Park Knitters Club. But it is supposed to rain so it will be inside like all the past Living Room Knitters Club meetings.

Here's a couple more pictures of Savary (taken the day after the wedding aka Hangover Day)cause its awfully nice there.

I lost my buttons

Seriously.

I don't know how it happened. Actually I have a theory that someone's boyfriend started cleaning a little over zealously and they ended up in the garbage. There was a 4 day search party and now they are considered lost and presumed dead. I'm going to go to Button Button today to replace them.

I was kind of bummed about that this week. I was also bummed because they let Paris Hilton out of jail. I am evilly filled with glee now that she has been sent back. I am a small and petty person, I know.

Return of the super secret baby project

I had to use a really big picture to celebrate the glory which is the completed Super Secret Baby Project. Look at it! Its a beautiful thing!

So what you see here is a hat made by Donna. She also made the pale green booties. And those little green booties with the pale green ties were made by Jocelyn. And me I made that sweater, but that's old news.

It brings a tear to my eye. Look how great it turned out! And Donna and Jocelyn have come so far. They're real knitters now. Its heartwarming.

I'm not sure what patterns were used for the booties and hat (D and J- why don't you leave it in the comments?). I do know that it was all knit in Blue Sky Organic Cotton. We love that stuff.

I got new buttons!

You know that Kids in the Hall sketch, well how would you know if I can barely remember it? Um, it takes place in a hipster clothing shop and 2 of the Kids (I can't even remember who) are female shop clerks. Um, I think. Anyways they are talking about all sorts of hipster shop clerk type things (circa 1989), punctuated with lots of "Oh my god!"'s, etc and one of their topics of conversation is about a girlfriend of theirs who had a fabulous jacket and went dancing. Something was haunted. Was it the dance floor or the jacket? I can't remember. Mmmmm, this is a good story isn't it? Suddenly, due to the haunting, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HER BUTTONS POPPED OFF!.

No....!

YES!!

Well then the girlfriend comes into the store at the end of the sketch wearing the fabulous jacket and announces "I got new buttons!!!"

Good rendition, no? Anyways, more to the point- I got new buttons!! Here's a nice upside down shot:

Yes, Donna picked me up at work yesterday and we had a lunch date at Button Button. Man, that place is seriously a good time. I've never been in there, just drunkenly looked through the windows late at night after leaving the Cambie.

These little suckers are going to go on to my Flair jacket which is blocking as we speak. (I'm a little worried about my blocking abilities on this one, but that is for another day.)


I almost bought some awfully excellent yellow vegetable ivory buttons that just faintly had cowboy images on them. Those were really some of the coolest buttons I have ever seen, but after about an hour of discussion with Donna, the shop woman, and other customers I went with the subtler buttons you see. New in 2007, a subtler Tracy. (I am so buying those cowboy buttons for another sweater...)

Due to excessive alcohol consumption

Due to excessive alcohol consumption this past holiday weekend, not too much in the way of knitting occurred. I did manage to get started on my FadClassic vest ever so stylishly portrayed on my seriously in need of a wash bedsheets (not much laundry occurred this past holiday weekend either).

I am liking this Knit Picks Shine Worsted yarn and am planning my next internet shopping adventure. I'm thinking apple green and cream for this: Bella Blouse.

Thoughts??? Alex, you must have something to say about that.

oh Tofutsies, you've let me down

That's me there. Watching Lost. With Mr. Bear. With my new socks. They are the Roza Socks from the Spring Issue of Interweave Knits. Its a good pattern I liked knitting it a lot.

I knitted them out of that Tofutsies yarn. Is that how you spell it? I'm not sure. Anyhoo, I was totally loving that yarn (despite the fact that it smells a little bit) until I was just getting into the foot of the second sock. So I'm knitting along and suddenly there is a break in the yarn, which kind of annoys me. I think that sock yarn really should not have breaks in it but fine, whatever, I can live through this and attach the two and keep it going. And I'm knitting away and have a very nice time at it (of course because I do like to knit quite a lot actually) when I notice that the yarn after the break isn't the same as the yarn before the break!!! How uncool is that?? So the one foot (the one on the right that you can't actually see that well but just trust me) is totally different than the other 1.5 socks.

So yeah, Tofutsies, I had great hopes of you and I being the best of friends but clearly that is not going to happen. You totally let me down. Besides, you're kind of saggy. Louet Gems, you're next, maybe we could be best of friends.

Another shout out to all the fabulous people leaving comments for me. I heart comments. (I also heart facebook and will probably be fired soon.) Oh and the Super Secret Baby Sweater was actually called Little Luxury Kimono from Lion Brand (its free!). I knitted it in Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Pickle (I think). I modified slighlty and put a couple of rows of garter and the bottom of the body and the sleeves as I so do not heart curling.

Oh happiness! Oh joy!

Its been a great couple of days I tell you.

Check it out dude. Two things.

1. Suffragette Knitty is now Googleable. I have been obsessively checking to see when Google would find me and it was last Thursday. I practically fell off my chair.

2. I now belong to the Knit Bloggers webring. That means that people other than Alex and Donna might just look at my blog. This thrills me to no end. And has led me to my next exciting thing:

3. Three people (count them, THREE!) I do not know left comments on my blog!!! It rocks! Thank you so much people i don't know! That means that at least 3 people I don't know have looked at my blog which is, oddly, very exciting to me.

So i had lots of other exciting things to write about but its hot in Vancouver now. (20 degrees is hot to me. I haven't adjusted yet.) Here is a photo of Peter of Peter, Bjorn and John. We saw them on Saturday at the Commodore. It was awesome. Do you see how close I was??? That was pretty hot too actually. I need to live in Iceland or something.

The fruits of my internet shopping labour

Sara at work was looking at my blog today (thanks Sara) and she called my attention to a glaring omission on my part. I had never posted my yarn that came in the mail last week, leaving a huge void in the internet shopping saga. I apologize to my readers (sorry Alex and Donna!), here's the story:

The yarn came. I was really excited and wanted only to go online and purchase more things. Oh the lure of internet shopping is great!

O.kay, actually the yarn came and I thought they had gypped me and only sent me 6 balls instead of 11. i emailed them and told them they'd gypped me and they immediately emailed back and told me 5 more balls were in the mail. A few hours later I actually LOOKED at what they had sent me and they had in fact sent me 11 balls. So I emailed them back and told them I was a goof and not to send me any more yarn. They "they" in question is Knit Picks and they were very nice and didn't make fun of me at all.

Oh so here is the yarn taken on my very ghetto East Van lawn:

And this photo details how slender the package is. Notice how slim it is. How anyone could really mistake it for only 5 balls of yarn and not 10. I'm sure many people make that error.

This is not hot

It kills me everytime I read that headline referring to Paris Hilton's jail sentence. Perhaps I am evil but I think it is hilarious.

Another thing that is not hot is my eyelids which are puffy and red and disgusting because it seems I am a little alergic to my new moisturizer. Its a little sad and definitley not hot.

In more important knitting related news the Super Secret Baby Shower presents were a huge hit at the baby shower this past weekend. Here is a picture of my completed Super Secret Baby Sweater:

It was really quite exceptionally cute in the end. I forgot to bring my camera to the shower so I don't have a picture of the entire Super Secret Baby Shower Project- yet. I do, however have a picture of my teddy bear, Brigette, wearing the sweater.

He makes a good model.

There was something of a horrible knitting accident

Jocelyn and Donna and I were having a nice little knitting afternoon in my living room yesterday, working on the last little bits of the super secret baby present for next weekend's baby shower. I was just starting to put the super secret baby sweater together and was sewing an i-cord onto one of the fronts. I didn't really like the way it was turning out so I got my scissors and started cutting and cut - the - sweater......

Yup, cut right on into it. Cut a nice little hole into the front right side of that super secret baby sweater.

Here, look at a picture of some flowers Tony bought me. This should help you get over the shock a little.




So, yes it was quite horrifying. I remained quite calm- ask Jocelyn and Donna. Shockingly calm actually. So I've had to rip out half of that front pannel and am reknitting. But Jocelyn and Donna's super secret baby bootees are totally rocking.


Yeah, so I am reknitting the front pannel that I DESTROYED, which isn't that big a deal because I like to knit quite a lot actually. Its just that I've moved on from the super secret baby sweater and would so much rather be knitting this:


Mmmmm, its my new favourite sock yarn ever! Its Tofutsies sock yarn and I think it will probably make the nicest summer socks ever. Its made from things like soy silk and shrimp and crab shells. Its true! Its also magical and knits in a spiralling pattern. It is the smartest sock yarn I ever saw. I am knitting it into Roza's Socks from the latest issue of Interweave knits and I'm knitting it on my new 2mm Britannies that my sister gave me for my birthday (Thanks Ang- leave a comment!).

In other news, the monkey socks fit!! They are just extremely thick, lace socks. Perhaps an error in yarn judgment. They are too hot for now but what the hey, they will be perfect come November.


We couldn't get a good picture of these socks, despite standing on a stool. Odd, I know.

Happy Administrative Professionals Day

Apparently that is what it is today. Sara told me about it last week so I immediately put it on the white board at work. Hey man, we are all administrative professionals there, so it seemed like a good day to party. We went to Chocoatl in Yale Town for some hot chocolate. That place is amazing! mmmm, delicious! They have 2 pages of different hot chocolates. I feel like I am high right now. We went to the Safeway after work and my lips felt like they were buzzing.

No, I am not supposed to be having caffeine but you know, Administrative Professionals Day comes but once a year.

So, I just got an email from Robin who suggested that it is actually Secretaries Day. I don't care. I got hot chocolate. You can't take that away from me.

You will note to the left a very fancy stitched landscape photo that I took and with only minimal whining got stitched together. I am feeling more genius like each day. The photo is of the super secret baby sweater I am making and it may just be the easiest thing to knit in the entire world. I think back to the 6 months plus that it took me to make that Baby's First Tatoo and I shake my head. I don't mind spending 6 months on something but I kind of hated every moment of that sweater. This one, well, its a dream and I've been working on it for exactly 5 days. Yes that is the last sleeve I am working on. If this actually looks cute when finished, well it might just be the only baby sweater I ever knit from here on in. (That's a total lie as I already have my eye on this: Vestee. Man that is a cute sweater. Maybe its just a super cute kid.)

So Tony told me I had to get some carbs in me to counteract the effects of the hot chocolate but in other news the Monkey Socks are still drying so tomorrow is D day.

I'm worried about my monkey socks

I think they might be gigantic monkey socks. Adding water to them seems to have made them expand. They are very cute, don't get me wrong. They just seem quite large and in danger of becoming larger. They seem to want to keep growing. We'll see how it goes. A male friend or relative with large feet may end up with some very cute monkey socks. I guess women have large feet too. Maybe I'll ask around.

Well, anyways, those are done now. I'm working on a very secret baby sweater that I guess isn't so secret as the parents to be would never look here. But my camera needs a new battery and I am too lazy to change it. So no picture. But it looks like it will be very cute. Trust me.

Its internet shopping night!!!

Yahoo! The rest of the world (o.kay Canada) is watching hockey but me, I get to do a little internet shopping. Frankly, that makes me the lucky one.

I have no choice. I'm stalled on Flair waiting for Donna (who's final is tomorrow, so I guess I'm not stalled too long) and my second Monkey sock is coming along quite nicely:

So, yes, nothing else to do but to go internet shopping!!

I'm going to buy this:

Fad-Classic from Knit and Tonic. (Holy crap, do you see that hyperlink I just included there? A genius, I tell you, I'm a genius.)

O.kay, yeah, so I am making that. I think it is so cute I may weep. Mine will be black. And will be made from Knit Picks (another one!) Shine Worsted in Ebony. I've read varying reviews of the Shine Worsted. Some people seem to love it, others, well not so much. I've decided to give er a try. I'm a little obsessed with the idea of purchasing yarn on line right now so I'm going for this.

Wendy from Knit and Tonic also suggests Cascade 220 which is awesome yarn and my yarn shop carries it. Its wool though and I kind of want something spring like. (Spring like and black. Ah, I do what I want.) But if this pattern works out I'm making it in Cascade in the fall. Damn straight.

In other news I met my new cousin. Yup, being very very good looking must run in the family.

Donna says

Well she says that I only allowed to work on this:

Which is cool. That's the, er, Monkey sock from Knitty's winter issue. Nice sock for sure. Yup.

What I kind of want to do, however, is go button shopping for this:

Mmmm, the lovely Flair jacket from Knit and Tonic. Yeah, I'm not sure how to put links in yet, but my one reader, Alex, is familiar with all of these sites. Anyhoo, Donna and I started the Flair together and then I had last week off and she has exams coming up and I am really far ahead, so now I have to wait. And knit socks. A lot of socks.

In other news, Alex says she is close to finishing her scarf.

I'm hoping to get some socks in here

Emma found my blog. Nice detective work. Or, I was drunk enough on my birthday to give it away. In that case, nice follow through.

I dreamed the other morning that the radio had gone off and Emma was on the radio (this had actually happened once in real life and I woke up one morning to hear Emma on the CBC talking about a knitted scarf exchange so it wasn't unbelievable at all) and she was talking about people that drink too much. In my dream I was lying there in bed thinking "ooohhh noooo, she's totally talking about me". Then I woke up and realized that it was a dream and I laughed out loud. Yeah, that was good times.

O.kay! Look at this! Its Mr. Bear with my new socks.

So that didn't last too long and turned into this:

That cat sure isn't very good at modelling socks. I told him so too. I guess if you are going to have a knitting blog its sort of mandatory to include pictures of your cat. Don't blame me, I don't make the rules.

Well, these are the socks on my feet. Why yes, we did have a sock photo shoot after work today. Once again, Law and Order is on so I have nothing more to say.

Baby's First Tattoo

Hi Alex!! My one reader!

So I've spent the morning learning a little something about photo files and I feel a little better about my blogging abilities. Ever so slightly better.

O.kay! So!! I finished Baby's First Tattoo from the Stitch and Bitch Nation book. I started it months ago for my cousin's baby who is now 2 months old. Lucky I made it big.

Alright, I am going to add a photo now...




Excellent. A photo. O.kay, that wasn't as easy as I thought it would be and I am now typing in the html area of blogger. But that's cool. I'm flexible. Time for another photo!!

Here is a detail of the left skull and cross bones. The side that I am pleased with. The other side is a bit wonky and I chose not to take a picture of it. I did, for 3 milliseconds, consider pulling the other side out and redoing it but man, this took soooooo long to make and was not a massive amount of fun (i blame it on the cotton yarn) and I already ripped out one arm and redid that because I was unhappy with the finishing. So, um, yeah, this is the side that I like.

O.kay yeah so here are 2 less fun photos and less commentary. Law and Order starts soon so I don't have a lot of time here.